


Grit to Grind

by Lolibat



Series: Doctor's playpen- a Naruto doctorverse [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 04:48:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20325358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lolibat/pseuds/Lolibat
Summary: She sits down with a sigh- her body feeling the weight of a million tons and yet nothing at once. "Sorry I'm late", she says, shrugging out of her coat. It's an off-yellow in the corner, where it touched on a patient's open dressing. She doesn't notice; nor would she care if she did."It's fine- the party doesn't start until Medical gets here," Naruto jokes, a cheap cup of hospital grade coffee in one hand and a pen in the other. A stack of consults are spread on the table, with Naruto’s chicken scratch writing penning in lab results and exam findings alike."Of course," Sakura replies primly. "After all, how else will Sasuke know what to do without me?"====A average day in Team 7 doctor verse- in which our favorite bunch meet up for a coffee and Sakura gets philosophical.Prompt fulfill for cywscross' fandom bingo challenge: team seven





	Grit to Grind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cywscross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/gifts).

She sits down with a sigh- her body feeling the weight of a million tons and yet nothing at once. "Sorry I'm late", she says, shrugging out of her coat. It's an off-yellow in the corner, where it touched on a patient's open dressing. She doesn't notice; nor would she care if she did.

"It's fine- the party doesn't start until Medical gets here," Naruto jokes, a cheap cup of hospital grade coffee in one hand and a pen in the other. A stack of consults are spread on the table, with Naruto’s chicken scratch writing penning in lab results and exam findings alike.

"Of course," Sakura replies primly. "After all, how else will Sasuke know what to do without me?" She bats her lashes mockingly at the surgical trainee, who glares at her past the ceramic rim of his own cup of hot chocolate. He has a manual of department protocols propped up in one hand and flimsy plastic ruler in the other. He has a patch of purple over the pocket of his white coat, where the surgical marker seeps ink uncapped. Sakura doesn’t bother pointing it out. He’ll figure it out at some point. Probably.

"I’d save the day. Obviously." He snarks back.

"Is that what you call drowning the patient in ten liters of IV fluid?," she rolls her eyes and snatches a dark blue wallet off the top of the table. "Coffee's on you, for all those acute pulmonary edema cases you dumped on me."

"Hn," he grunts, but doesn't stop her. She knows Sasuke doesn't care about money; never has, in all the years she's known him. Treating his friends (the few he has) is an unspoken habit; he never asks for money back for food. Won't even take the money back; it's his way of showing that he cares for his friends more than his wallet.

Not that bills even matters anymore, what with three doctors sharing the table. But it's the thought that counts.

She totes back a venti caramel latte and a strawberry danish- with her luck, it's probably her lunch and dinner for the day.

"So, what's going on in the world of pint sized poop machines?" Sakura turns to ask Naruto. He looks gaunt, with dark under eye circles stacked on on top of each other. They don't diminish the brightness of the joy in his eyes.

"About the same- the kids are cute," he grins, whiskered face (a middle school prank gone wrong, she remembers fondly) stretching wide. "They're about this big" he makes a gesture with his fingers, "and this cute," he adds, holding his arms out wide.

"Are the parents just as cute?" She asks cheekily, stirring her latte lazily with one hand.

"Ehhhhh not quite," he admits, enthusiasm deflating. His hair deflates with him, Sakura notes with amusement.

Sasuke snorts, an action he wouldn't be caught dead doing if his dad was around. "Maybe at a thirty percent discount."

Only thirty? Sakura thinks with a raised eyebrow. Wisely, she says nothing and merely sips away at her coffee. She makes a happy noise, her coffee chipping away at the granite block of stress over her shoulders

Naruto grimaces at the mention of the parents. "Well, there's not much to be done about that," he shrugs. "Dad's teaching me how to handle them, but I'm not quite getting the hang of it." “Handling” is a nice way to put it, Sakura thinks. She could use some lessons in “handling” relatives herself.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Sakura says with a sigh as she recalls her latest clusterfuck of a case. She thinks of the binder of notes approximately half a foot in height and takes a fortifying bite of her danish. Where's that whiskey when she needs it?

"It's always the oncology ones," Sasuke adds sagely. Not for the first time, he wishes that he could have gone into psychiatry with Itachi- or at least a lab job- if only to dodge that.

At that, Sakura nods with a vehemence that shakes a one of her bobby pins in her hair loose. "Especially the oncology ones." The two of them share a long suffering glance only understood by those dealing with over-eighteen.

"Well, it's not that bad," Naruto says defensively. "It's understandable that they'd be worried." His expression shutters a bit- darkens with the memories of kids who never got to see much of life outside of the hospital's white walls.

What's _understandable_, is that she's staying in the hospital past eight because of someone's incurable case of anxiety and anterograde amnesia as she explains the same damn thing for the third time.

"I suppose," she sighs, and changes the topic. There's too much death in between the three of them; too much blood, too much stress for her to even begin to decompress. The pen is mightier than the sword: in their hands pens might as well be swords, for all they're using it for. The real question is, at whom is the edge of the blade pointed at? There are days when Sakura puts pen to paper and feels it carve the words into her very soul.

For comfort care, she writes. It's giving up; it's giving in. It's an act of mercy, she thinks. She's not sure who those words are supposed to be a comfort to, at the end of the day.

"So, you're dating Sasuke's big bro now?" Sakura slapped a grin on her face and poked Naruto in the ribs. He yelped, swatting away her hand. He's ticklish in the ribs, neck, and back of both knees (and over vertebrae T12-L3), she knows. They both know. She's willing to bet that Itachi knows as well, if Sasuke hasn't told him by now. The man is lauded as a genius, and having had his tutoring during final year of school, she’s inclined to agree.

"More like three quarters-married", Sasuke makes a face at that.

Sakura laughed. "Walked in on them before?" She teased. Sasuke coughs the same time Naruto chokes on his coffee. He turns a beet red that clashes horribly with his blonde hair.

"That many times, hm?" She grins and props her head up on her hands. She watches her boys like she always does, with equal parts fondness and exasperation, as they squirm uncomfortably.

"Enough," he says sourly. She's not sure if he means to stop or if he's seen innumerable mind scarring things- of the non life and death kind. Naruto glares that them each in turn and pointedly turns his nose up with a huff.

"It's 'multidisciplinary action'" Naruto says primly with a playful grin.

"Heh, is that what they're calling it nowadays?" Sasuke smirks. "You sure looked _very_ multidisciplinary".

Whatever that mean, Sakura thinks with a snort. Maybe they'll combine into one and produce a child psychiatrist. Is that how they're made? 

“Very action too,” he adds with a scrunch of his nose.

Naruto whacks Sasuke on the head.

"Watch the hair," the surgeon says grumpily.

"Of course, wouldn't want all that hair gel to dry at the wrong angle. It might poke your brain out." Naruto jokes.

"It must be nice though, to have someone you can come home to," Sakura muses wistfully. She's had enough of random tubs of hair gel randomly appearing, after almost five years of dorming with those two. It would be nice, to be a unit- be a "we" instead of an "I", to know that there's someone she can come home to who would understand completely, to have a warm pair of arms to fall into- a shoulder to cry on.

"Maybe for you," Sasuke shrugs. He doesn't care one whit about soulmates; his cousin Obito always mooned over soulmates- like the ones in bad TV dramas, and look at where he is now... six foot under, probably still looking for his soul mate among earthworms.

"We all know Sasuke's soul mate is a da Vinci," Naruto shrugs.

"He's got you there," Sakura says and sips her coffee. They've only had to deal with Sasuke's bitching about how his dad won't let him near the department's baby as a student about twenty times a semester. For five years.

"Hmph. I still can't use the da Vinci," Sasuke insists, once again missing the point completely.

"You're a _basic_ surgical trainee," Sakura points out logically. "Of course your dad wouldn't let you near a million dollar machine." Yet.

"Yeah, get a couple more certs on your wall, Bastard," Naruto grins.

"Go stuff your head in a diaper, Dipshit," Sasuke snarks back with his own brand of love.

"Boys," Sakura says drily. They shut up. They know what that tone means; usually it's followed by a solid whack to the face by Robbin's Pathology.

Sakura swirls her coffee with a spoon, staring at the foam as it drifts about in circles.

Sakura knows, deep in her bones, that she's meant for internal medicine and internal medicine alone. She feels that rush- that moment when the very life of a person hangs on the thread of a moment. A second. A beat. A pulse. She feels the adrenaline that courses through her as she puts pen to paper and writes words that define a person's life -or death. In that moment, she knows that she has earned her coat; earned her right to wear her white coat, and she feels alive. There is nothing, come high hell or heavens, that can snatch that feeling away from her.

She knows that the boys feel the same; she's seen them in action before. The look on Sasuke's face as he commands a team of nurses to wheel the patient for emergency operation. The dark in his eyes, the thunder in his expression as he barks orders to interns and scrub nurses alike. It’s nothing like the grumpy broody hair-gel abusing teen that she grew up with.

She knows there are days when Naruto spends hours upon hours next to babies, setting their IV access. She sees his back hunched over in concentration at five in the morning, and she understands his singleminded dedication for those he cares for.

She doesn’t look in a mirror often- doesn’t have time to, especially not when things go snafu in a half a heartbeat- but if she will, she would see the same look and concentrated reflected on her face.

"We're a team," Sakura says quietly out of her rumination, stirring her now cold latte. The boys don’t mind that she spaces out- they’re used to her “absence seizures”, as Naruto likes to joke. In fact, the two of them are neck deep in a discussion about a pediatric intestinal obstruction case. Sasuke looks at her with a raised eyebrow. 'What is it this time?' would be the appropriate body language translation.

Because that's what they've always been- a team from start to finish. Even through the good and the bad. Now they've made it, past the hardship and nights that know no end. Past the hunger and strife, to start on a different journey altogether. To a brighter future, held together by hope and threads of fear and joy in equal parts. But no matter what they do, or where they go, they'll go as a team. Team Seven; what started as a table number and an inside joke became a dissection table group, then a study group, and now a rag-tag team of junior trainees bitching at each other over a cup of joe.

But Sakura wouldn't have it any other way. She knows that the boys will have her back, no matter what (and likewise, even though Sasuke keeps calling her at four AM in the morning for a high troponin. She wants to wring his neck. She counts to twenty and doesn't.)

Sasuke reacts to her sudden statement with such an “obviously” expression that Sakura fights to roll her eyes and resists the urge to chuck her pager at his face.

Team 7. That’s what they are- through high hell and heaven. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fulfill for cywscross' fandom bingo challenge: team seven. Gift for the lovely cywscross. Sorry I haven't filled out the fic sentence challenge from a while ago. DX
> 
> Doctor verse! Naruto back due to popular demand, this time looking at team 7. Just a very short blurb on the daily life of our favorite team 7 bunch as doctors and some thoughts from Sakura's perspective. I definitely feel like Sakura's the type of person with a lot of grit, hence the title. I probably could have made this piece longer, but I wouldn't know where to go with it- not really. It's just a couple of friends having a coffee together, that's all. 
> 
> (That and I'm dead tired from work).
> 
> Would you guys still want to see more from Naruto doctorverse? So far we've got team 7 (Sakura- IM, Sasuke- surgical, Naruto- paeds) and Itachi (psych).
> 
> And yes, that is a dig at Kakashi (-points to reference above-)


End file.
